Well, I'm not big on the price hike, but I believe this is the price they charge when you build minifigures at a Lego store (I think its 3 for 9.99). And, those figures aren't as cool as these. Just sayin'

It's a dealbreaker for me - I'm only going to get the 7 or 8 I really like this time around and will forget about the ones I would've grabbed for the sake of completeness if they were still $1.99. They're really shooting themselves in the foot this time around. For example, I wouldn't have bought a Mime from CMFs2 if he was $2.99, but for $1.99 I was like "eh, he's funny, sure. Why not?" and threw him in the cart. I really don't need a dude in a gorilla costume for $2.99.

My first thought is that I'm glad I got them from Fred Meyer for $1.99 before they realized they needed to up their price.

My second thought is, I guess this is capitalism in action. LEGO realized the demand was high, so they jacked the price to take advantage of that, even though they aren't providing 50% more value. I'm honestly a bit surprised. With the obvious cost-cutting measures they have employed in the manufacture of these (which haven't ruined my enjoyment, but DO make me wary of spending 50% more on them) for them to charge 50% more seems kind of unwarranted. Often it seems when a company wishes to institute a drastic price hike like this, they at least TRY to provide the illusion of some kind of added value along with it, rather than just admitting that they are raising the price solely because they feel they can get away with it. But I can't really fault them for it. All I can do is decide, for myself, if it is worth it to continue. For the first three series, I would never have DREAMED of purchasing any of them from places charging $2.99 apiece, but that was in part because I knew the MSRP was lower.

I can say this, with the higher price, I will definitely not be buying a single one unless I know EXACTLY what I'm getting in the package. But that isn't really a change, except before I was only concerned with getting one of each, instead of possibly cherry picking specific figures that I want, even at the higher price.

jonutah wrote:Well, I'm not big on the price hike, but I believe this is the price they charge when you build minifigures at a Lego store (I think its 3 for 9.99). And, those figures aren't as cool as these. Just sayin'

- Jon

Though I think THOSE are made with the higher quality plastic, right? I've never gotten one, so I can't say for sure.

I think it may have something to do with a general price correction for all Lego products in the US. For a long time there have been rants from people asking "Why does Lego cost so much in my country versus the US". A commonly offered explanation is that they are priced competative to the world market and that in fact the Lego in the US is relatively underpriced. With current weakness in the value of the US dollar on world markets this has become more noticable.

For the previous waves how have most of you been buying them? In person at a lego store, once the "code" has been broken? (so you know exactly which figures you're buying?). OR is anyone actually buying them from S@H in batches, hoping for the best, and then swapping their inevitable dupicates with other forum members?

Well, it's better than TRU's $3.99 pricepoint. Still, $2.99 is too high. $2.50 was my absolute limit on these. Series 4 looks to have a bunch worth $3 each, but IMO series 3 does not. $1.99 was the magic number. Ugh. I was looking forward to these, but it's no longer worth it.

I'm NOT thinkin this is a smart move by TLC. Wasn't it noted that series 3 would have a broader availability than the previous two lines? With that in mind this means more are available to everyone, which makes a complete set worth less for any collector....right? I personally won't pick up a whole set of these until Borders gets them and I have a 40% off coupon, that brought them down to about 2.60 after tax (as long as they keep them at 3.99). I hope TRU has a few decent BOGO 50% sale, them they might be priced a little better...

I agree, if production is up for Series 3, why would you jack the prices up? At $3.99 a piece, my local TRU has had 50+ boxes on the shelves for the past week and a half. No one is buying them. I think TLC is shooting themselves in the foot on this one. The hardcore collectors aren't going to buy the quantities they did on Series 1 and Series 2. I know I'm not.

Inzane wrote:For the previous waves how have most of you been buying them? In person at a lego store, once the "code" has been broken? (so you know exactly which figures you're buying?). OR is anyone actually buying them from S@H in batches, hoping for the best, and then swapping their inevitable dupicates with other forum members?

I did that with series 1 which had a limit of 5. It was kind of fun gettting them 5 at a time and not checking the barcodes and just surprising myself.

Of course by the time S@H got them and shipped them to me I already had pieced together a complete set from my local TRU.

I'll be ordering a batch of 16 as soon as they become available. Hopefully I'll complete the set, if not I'll try another batch. For the most part I've been able to sell off the extras and at least break even on the other 2 series.

I agree that $1.99 was better but for $2.99 you still get some cool and unique accessories that aren't available anywhere else. There seemed to be quite a few people willing to shell out $3.99 for an ubiquitous storm trooper on a crappy speeder. For a unique figure with great accessories $2.99 is fine with me.

Like WillyWampa mentioned, I think this price adjustment has more to do with how the value of the US dollar has decreased over the last year or so rather than the hype surrounding the first two series of these minifigs. One fact supporting this theory is that the Canadian version of LEGO Shop At Home site puts series 3 minifgs at 2.99 CND each, the same price we Canucks have been paying for each minifig bag ever since the release of the first series.

Yes, it is a big increase for US buyers, but considering the US dollar is now down to almost par with the canadian dollar, this was bound to happen sooner or later.